Ratchet-tool.



No. 851,120. .PATENTED APR. 23, 19o?.

- W.H.GQWBLL.

RATCHBT TOOL.A

APPLIUATION FILED JAN.`10, 190m wam 1 le: Inmulll il l l UNITED STATMEkSn PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM I-I. COWELL, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

RATCHET-TOOL- Speccation of Letters Patent.

Patented April 23, 1907.

Application filed J anuary l()l 1907. Serial No 351,658.

and drill oi the ratchet class, designed particularly to turn nuts or to be used as a drill.

The chief object of the invention is to provide an improved ratchet mechanism to grip the drill socket piece, characterized especially by the absence of any spring, which is liable to be snapped in cold weather.

A further object is to provide a practical, simple and durable mechanism which will be noiseless in operation and very efficient for the purpose intended.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a plan view of the tool. Figs. 2 and 3 are similar views with one of the face plates removed, the ratchet wheels being in different positions. Fig. v4 is a side or edge view with part of the casing removed, to show the ratchet devices.

Referring specifically to the drawings, 6 indicates a handle formed preferablyin one piece with a head 7. The head contains two circular compartments or recesses 8 and 9 which communicate, and which are enclosed on opposite sides by a face plate 1() one of which is preferably made integral with the head and the other of which is preferably made separable, and is removable, being held in place by screws 11.

Located and rotatable within the recess 8 is a socket piece 12 having a socket 413 to it over the nut or to receive the shank of a drill, and the socket piece projects at its opposite ends or sides through circular openings in the face plate. The socket piece or wheel has around the periphery thereof two sets of shrouded gear teeth 14 which are staggered or halved with respect to each other; and the socket piece isfreely rotatable in the head, being held in position by the opposite face plates.

Located and rotatable within the recess 9 is a pair of ratchet wheels 15, which are of peculiar construction. These wheels are mounted to rotate upon a bolt 16 which eX- tends through and between the face plates, and the wheels are staggered or halved with respect to each other so that the teeth thereof will engage, respectively, with the gear teeth 14 of the socket piece. The teeth 17 of the wheels 15 are of greater pitch than the cogs 14; that is, they are a greater distance apart.. Also, said teeth are curved or hawks-bill teeth, having a gullet or conc avity 18 on the Jfront side, andhaving a convex back or rear side, as indicated at 19, formingy between the tipof two teeth an ogee curve; and the clearance or space between the teeth is considerably wider than the width of the cogs 14.

The effect of the construction just described isto allow slip or rotation of the cogs in one direction, and to prevent it in the other, forming, in short, a ratchet. Thus, when the handle is turned in the direction of the arrow a, Fig. 2, a nut or drill shank being in the socket, the socket piece will turn freely in the head, and the ratchet wheels 15 will also turn, the cogs 14 oiI the socket piece striking against the back 19 of the teeth 17, and said cogs 14 will ride down or along the curve of the back of one tooth into the gullet of the next, thereby causing an acceleration or advance of movement of the ratchet.

wheels 15 sufficient to take up or compensate for the difference in pitch, the same action being repeated for each tooth of the wheels. But when the handle is swung in the working direction, that is, in the direction indicated by the arrow b in Fig. 2, the tooth 17 of the ratchet wheel 15 which has just left its cog 14, will back and bind against said cog 14 and thereby lock the gears against rotation and thus cause the socket piece to turn with the handle. This position is illustrated in Fig. 3 of the drawings. The back movement necessary to bring the tooth 17 down upon the cog 14 is caused by the engagement ofthe succeeding cog 14 against the succeeding tooth 17, and the slight backward movement of the wheels when the wrench takes hold. The teeth are so spaced apart that the locking contact of the teeth 17 and the cogs 14 takes place at the tip of the teeth at a point off-set from a center line drawn between the respective gears, so that there is no danger of any slip, a cam lock, infact, being formed which absolutely prevents rotation.

The purpose of having two sets of cogs 14 and two ratchet wheels 15, halved with respect to each other, is to decrease by half the lost motion incident to the back slip when the wrench is taking hold. Obviously the number of gears may be increased, if de- IOC IIO

sired, but in a wrench of ordinary size the lost motion will amount to only a very small fraction of an inch, and two sets of gears will be sufficient.

In Fig. 4, the device is shown arranged for drilling purposes, the head of an ordinary feed screw 20 being secured at one side, by screws 21, to the socket piece 12, with a hand piece 22, which hand piece may be held and the drill will feed according to the screw 20, as the socket piece is turned.

To reverse the tool and use it as a wrench it is turned over andl reversed, the doubleended construction of the socket piece allowing a nut to be received in either end. For use on nuts of different sizes and shapes a set of adjustable sockets may beprovided having mesh with the cogs when turned one way and which lock therewith when turned the other.

2. In a ratchet tool, the combination with a head and handle, of a cogged socket wheel rotatable in the head, and a ratchet wheel rotatable in the head and having curved teeth of greater pitch than the pitch of the cogs, and which mesh with the cogs when turned one way and lock therewith when turned the other.

3. In a ratchet tool, the combination with a head and handle, of a cogged socket wheel rotatable in the head, and a ratchet wheel rotatable in the head and having teeth engaging the cogs, said teeth being straight on one face and convex on the other, substantially as and for the purpose described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM II. COWELL.

Witnesses:

JOHN A. BOMMHARDT, SHIRLEY J. BOMMHARDT. 

